IT | Pixr8 News

Trump admin working to temporarily ban work-based Visas

9May By AdityaNo Comments

USA

Trump admin working to temporarily ban work-based Visas

The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled IT professionals, as well as students visas and work authorization that accompanies them, amidst the high level of unemployment due to the coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday. The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Nearly 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the US in the H-1B status. "The president's immigration advisers are drawing up plans for a coming executive order, expected this month, that would ban the issuance of some new temporary, work-based visas," The Wall Street Journal reported Frid...

27Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

Cognizant India to give 25 pc extra Payment to Two-Third of its Staff

IT firm Cognizant will give employees who are at associate level and below in India and the Philippines, an additional payment of 25 percent of base pay for April, in recognition of their extraordinary continuity-of-service efforts amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The move is expected to benefit over 1,30,000 Cognizant employees in India. Cognizant CEO, Brian Humphries in a note to employees said, the additional payment will be processed with their April paychecks, and that the company will be reviewing this approach monthly. Describing the pandemic as one of the biggest shocks to the world in decades, Humphries said that Cognizant, like all global companies, is experiencing the effects of this public health emergency on both the demand and fulfilment sides of its business, from London...

Infosys Sacks Three Employees on Bribe Charges

10Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Infosys Sacks Three Employees on Bribe Charges

Bengaluru, March 9, 2020: Global software major Infosys sacked three of its techies who were arrested on a bribe charge levelled by the Indian Income Tax Department, said a company official. "The three employees have been terminated after a thorough internal investigation," said Infosys in a mail reply to Pixr8 News. Admitting that the company was aware of the allegations against the accused who have been found violating the company's policies by the tax authorities, the official said the company takes any breach of its policies and code of conduct seriously. "We are cooperating with the authorities," the official added. The three accused are Renugunta Kalyan Kumar, Prakash, and Deveshwar Reddy. "The three were arrested for contacting taxpayers and promising to get them tax reb...

27Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Hasura raises USD 9.9 mn funding from Vertex Ventures US & Others

Tech firm Hasura has raised USD 9.9 million (about Rs 70 crore) in funding, led by Vertex Ventures US. The series A round also saw participation from SAP.iO Fund, the early-stage venture arm of SAP, existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Strive VC, a statement said. Several angels like James Tamplin (founder of Firebase), Sam Lambert (VP of Infrastructure Engineering at GitHub), Amod Malvia (co-founder of Udaan, ex CTO Flipkart), and Michael Stoppelman (ex-SVP of Engineering at Yelp) also participated, it added. Hasura is a San Francisco based privately held software technology company that builds developer tooling products, including open source tools, backend as a service (BaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) products. The company provides data access and data flow ...

Tech Mahindra to Acquire Zen3 Infosolutions for $64 Million

24Feb By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Tech Mahindra to Acquire Zen3 Infosolutions for $64 Million

Indian IT company Tech Mahindra has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent stake in US-based Zen3 Infosolutions for USD 64 million in an all-cash deal. Headquartered in Seattle, Zen 3 has over 1,300 employees spread across offices in Seattle, Dublin, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, and Bengaluru. "The acquisition of Zen3 Infosolutions is in line with our strategy to build new capabilities. It has expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, annotations, cloud engineering etc which are high growth area," Vivek Agrawal- Global Head, Enterprise Business and Portfolio Companies, Tech Mahindra said. Tech Mahindra will acquire 100 per cent stake in the company for USD 64 million or about Rs 460 crore out of which USD 42 million or about Rs 300 crore will be paid at closing and...

Wipro Acquires Washington based Rational Interaction

21Feb By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Wipro Acquires Washington based Rational Interaction

Wipro Digital, the digital business unit of IT major Wipro has acquired digital customer experience (CX) firm Rational Interaction. Wipro Digital didn't disclose the acquisition amount. Founded in 2009, Rational Interaction is headquartered in Washington and has over 300 employees. It has offices in Seattle, Bellevue, Dublin, and Sydney. "The acquisition will scale Wipro Digital's offering for Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), connecting Rational Interaction's ability to map and orchestrate the customer journey with Wipro Digital's ability to design and build experiences at global scale," a statement said. Together, the companies will provide bespoke and effective solutions for the marketing suite, it added. Rational Interaction helps brands create sustained CX program success...

Wipro CEO Abidali Z Neemuchwala Steps down

31Jan By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Wipro CEO Abidali Z Neemuchwala Steps down

In the latest development, Wipro CEO and MD Abidali Z Neemuchwala decided to step down. The firm's shares dropped 2.28 percent to Rs 235.30 on the BSE. On the NSE, it declined 2.28 percent to Rs 235.20. Wipro early on Friday announced that Neemuchwala has decided to step down due to family commitments. He will continue to hold the office of the CEO and Managing Director, until a successor is appointed for a smooth transition and to ensure that business continues as usual, the company said in a BSE filing. "We thank Neemuchwala for his leadership and his contributions to the Wipro. Over the last four years, he helped build a strong execution mindset, drove key acquisitions and scaled our Digital business globally," Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said. Neemuchwala said the comp...

How 1974 Incident Turn Narayan Murthy into Compassionate Capitalist

6Jan By AnkitaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

How 1974 Incident Turn Narayan Murthy into Compassionate Capitalist

A bitter experience on a train in 1974 in Nis, a border town between what is now Serbia and Bulgaria, turned N R Narayana Murthy into a "compassionate capitalist", leading him to create Infosys, the country's IT bellwether. Recalling the incident, Murthy said he was engaged in a conversation with a girl, who could only understand French, but it landed him in trouble. "We were talking about life in Bulgaria. I think the boy, who was accompanying the girl, got upset with us for some reason. So, he went and brought the police," Murthy said on Sunday while addressing the audience at a tech fest organized by IIT, Bombay, through a video link. The Bulgarian guards took Murthy's passport, luggage and dragged him on the platform. He was kept in an 8X8 room, with primitive toilet facilitie...

10Oct By NitishNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Infosys Acquihire Irish Firm Eishtec

Indian IT firm Infosys has entered into a strategic partnership with Eishtec under which 1,400 employees of the Irish firm will be transferred to Infosys BPM. "Infosys has entered into a strategic partnership with Eishtec, which includes the transfer of Eishtec's business to Infosys BPM, an Infosys company. This partnership does not entail the purchase of any equity," Infosys said in a regulatory filing. The partnership will enable Infosys to better serve its clients in the region, leveraging its deep expertise in technology, analytics, and digital, the statement added. Eishtec was established in 2011 and is one of Ireland's leading customer service providers and employs 1,400 people across Ireland. "The current management team of Eishtec will continue with the leadership of th...

Mindtree will continue as a separate entity: L&T

9Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Mindtree will continue as a separate entity: L&T

Larsen and Toubro, which recently acquired a majority share in Mindtree, said the IT firm will be run as a separate entity and operate at an arm's length from the construction major's own tech units. There is no direct conflict between Mindtree and L&T Infotech (LTI) as "they operate in vastly different areas with a minimum client overlap", L&T CEO and Managing Director SN Subrahmanyan said to Pixr8 News, asserting that no position is sought to be disturbed at Mindtree and no changes are being contemplated right now. L&T will focus on "continuity" as a key theme in the management transition, and the announcement for a new chief executive for the IT services firm will be done in due course, he told Pixr8 News. Last week, L&T was categorised as a promoter of Mindtree...

Hexaware acquires Mobiquity for $182 million

14Jun By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Hexaware acquires Mobiquity for $182 million

IT firm Hexaware has acquired US-based Mobiquity Inc for a total consideration of about USD 182 million (approximately Rs 1,266 crore). Mobiquity creates digital products for brands like Amazon Web Services, Rabobank, Philips, Wawa, Backbase and Otsuka. Mobiquity group revenue was USD 70 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. "This is the largest ever investment by Hexaware and the combined entity aims to directly compete with large digital agencies and consulting firms," Hexaware said in a statement. R Srikrishna, CEO of Hexaware Technologies, said, with this acquisition, Hexaware enters an exciting new phase of growth and capability. "Mobiquity strengthens two of our key strategic offerings, Cloudify Everything, and Customer Experience Transformation. We are seeing str...

Infosys completes Acquisition of ABN AMRO Bank Subsidiary

26May By AdityaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Infosys completes Acquisition of ABN AMRO Bank Subsidiary

IT services major Infosys said it has completed the acquisition of 75% shareholding in ABN AMRO Bank's wholly-owned cNV. In March, the country's second largest IT services firm had said it will acquire 75 per cent stake in Stater for 127.5 million euros (about ₹989 crore). ABN AMRO continues to hold the remaining 25 per cent. "This partnership strengthens Infosys' position as a leading technology and business process management provider across the mortgage services value chain, improving experience and operational efficiencies..." Infosys said in a statement. It added that the deal further enhances its strategy to help clients navigate their next digital transformation journeys. "The specialised knowledge and experience of Stater in the mortgage services market, combined with t...